How the forbidden romance may have destroyed the late singer's life!

When legendary singer Whitney Houston died, she was still tormented by her bust-up with former assistant, RobynCrawford. RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal their once loving relationship was destroyed by fear, greed and a shocking betrayal!

So Crawford dropped out of Monmouth College to become Houston’s assistant. And true to her word, the pair traveled around the world together as the diva performed on tour.

If they were lovers, they never acknowledged their relationship. Still, rumors swirled about the twosome when they moved into a cozy apartment together, even though both women could well afford to live on their own.

In 1992 Houston and Brown finally tied the knot and the following year she gave birth to BobbiKristina.

Houston and Crawford began to drift apart. The two had a bitter falling out in 1996 after they got into a fight over a pretty girl singer, 17-year-old ShannaWiley. Houston, who was grooming Wiley for stardom, felt betrayed after Crawford signed Wiley to her own record label Better Place Records.

The lesbian rumors swirled again after Brown questioned his wife’s reasons for marrying him in his 2008 biography, Bobby Brown: The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But…by Derrick Handspike.

“Now I realize Whitney had a different agenda than I did when we got married,” Brown was quoted as saying. “I believe her agenda was to clean up her image while mine was to be loved and have children.

“Whitney felt she had to make rumors of a lesbian affair go away,” he said.

“Since she was the American Sweetheart and all, that didn’t go too well with her image,” said Brown. “In Whitney’s situation the only solution was to get married and have kids. That would kill all speculation whether it was true or not.”

Gay rights activist PeterTatchell, who met and befriended Houston and Crawford at an AIDS charity event just before Houston’s wedding, says the marriage was strictly a business arrangement.

“It seems likely that the split with Robyn contributed to her substance abuse and decline,” says Tatchell. “There is a known correlation between denial of one’s sexuality and a propensity to self-destructive behavior. Homophobia undoubtedly added to the pressures on Whitney and hastened her demise.”

In her Esquire eulogy, Crawford refused to say anything about her rumored romance with Houston, but she admits she misses her terribly.

“I can’t believe that I’m never going to hug her or hear her laughter,” she said. “I loved her laughter and that’s what I miss most.”

Find out more of the shocking secrets and scandals surrounding Whitney Houston’s death, and her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown’s shocking passing, on this week’s episode of National Enquirer Investigates, Saturday night at 9 pm PT/ET on REELZ Channel.